"With its first, full dress training film for Scoutmasters, the Visual Education Service of the Boy Scouts of America embarks, in The Patrol Method, on a new pedagogical path. Instead of presenting the perfect method for emulation, the movie records what happens when Scoutmasters and patrol leaders, with more enthusiasm than shrewdness, do things in ways that invite difficulty. The wiser course is pointed out tactfully, but indirectly, in the film. Here is an unusual employment of the movie medium, but the United States Army and Navy found that it worked in war training. The film is intended for use with a printed outline, and verbal conferences will follow its showings. Directly designed to accomplish a specific teaching task, The Patrol Method does it admirably." Movie Makers, Dec. 1945, 498.
"To those filmers who have had the dubious honor of trying to direct a group of young, obstreperous children who somehow seem to persist in shyly gazing into the camera lens, Harlan M. Webber should be able to give some sound advice. Charming, but not cunning, Pinocchio's Jack-O'-Lantern seems to solve all the usual deficiencies which attend a film starring children. With a sure camera sense, Mr. Webber uses sparkling lighting and imaginative camera viewpoints to bring out the Peter Pan quality which pervades the Halloween party given by his son. The picture opens with startlingly clear shots of the small boy reading a Halloween book and continues with him helping his mother prepare the refreshments for the coming party. In a spirit of understanding and finesse, the filmer follows the antics of the disguised children through the party itself and on to the usual doorbell ringing, where they heinously blackmail the neighbors for candy, cookies and cake. Nostalgically provocative, the film exhibits a buoyant naturalness which would delight any audience." Movie Makers, Dec. 1946, 486.
"A man entertains a married woman in her own home. He has previously stolen money from her husband’s wallet and hides the money in a book. The woman in turn removes the money from the book and keeps it for herself. The husband discovers their dalliance and orders the man to go. The man returns and accuses the couple of stealing his money. A burglar interrupts the proceedings. The burglar searches the pockets of the husband and removes (what looks like) another woman’s handkerchief. The burglar then searches the pockets of the man and the wife, discovering the money. The burglar offers the money to the husband in order to recompense him for embarrassing him in front of his wife and proceeds to steal other items from the room, leaving his revolver on the floor. The burglar says farewell. The husband and the man square up to each other" (EAFA Database).
"This film was specifically produced for a meeting of the London Amateur Cinematographers’ Association on 27 March 1929. The film was the basis of a competition for the club members. The club’s members in this case were invited to record the mistakes incorporated into the film. The report in Amateur Films notes that the competition was won by Mrs Nora Pfeil, who recorded approximately 30 mistakes" (EAFA Database).
"The story concerns a girl who, during her husband’s absence in the East, takes a lover. The husband returns home unexpectedly, and, in a heated scene, threatens the lover with an automatic. Unfortunately for him this expansive gesture is witnessed by a tramp. The tramp thinks he had better retreat. As he hurries from the scene he hears a shot ring out and returns to find that the lover has been killed. He reports to a policeman, with the result that the husband is arrested, tried, and condemned to death. Dramatic Climax - With feminine perversity the wife now realises that it is her husband who she really loves, and implores her sister’s fiancé, a member of the C.I.D., to save her husband, whom she believes innocent. He promises to do his best, and, on fuller investigation, finds a sodden letter near the spot where the murder was committed. On making enquiries he finds that a man has recently been lodging at the address given on the envelope, who had just returned from America, and had disappeared on the day of the murder. When finally arrested the man tells of a private vendetta with the lover and of his determination to be avenged. A witness to the quarrel, he shoots the erstwhile friend just after the quarrel with the husband. The final scenes lend themselves to a thrilling climax. The final shot portrays the face of the murderer as he discharges his gun point blank at the audience" (M.A.L.B. 1931: 6).
"Comprehensive record of the event at London's White City stadium, with U.K., U.S., and Commonwealth entrants. Cowboys and cowgirls, saddled and bareback-riding, bucking broncos, roping, steer riding and dangerous horseback acrobatics. Named riders - Hardy Murphy, Ted Elder and Homer the Rodeo Clown." (EAFA Database)
"Sahuaro Land, by Frank E. Gunnell, is as clever and painless a teaching film as one may find in many a classroom screening. Here, in a colorful Arizona cactus desert, we find the surefire ingredients of a boy and his dog. The boy is an enthusiastic nature student who, in the course of his explorations of the region, contrives to make sundry entries in his notebook, which find their way to the screen. These data are all so natural a part of the story, however, that the information conveyed does not assume the rather forbidding status of an instructional title in any case. The outdoor color work is excellent, and the viewpoints are well chosen. Mr. Gunnell's use of telephoto technique for making closeup studies of distant, inaccessible objects (such as the bloom atop a tall cactus) was particularly effective. We learned a lot from this film." Movie Makers, Dec. 1940, 604.
"Sally yearns for the better things in life. Her mother takes in washing and asks Sally to return some laundry. En route, Sally peers over the gate of a house. She is spotted by the owner, Mrs Bond-Regent, who has just returned from shopping for her niece's garden party to learn that her maid has left. Sally is dragooned into becoming the maid for the afternoon. The film involves Sally's mishaps. The guests, who are all women, include an artist, a musician, an actress, a dancer, a representative of The Simple Life League, and a woman dressed like a man (whom Sally mistakes for a man). Despite her shortcomings as a maid, the guests all see wonderful potential in Sally and try to teach her their respective arts, but to no avail. After being persuaded to smoke a pipe, Sally flees the party and returns home, eschewing the better thing in life" (EAFA Database).
"Girl Guides from Queen Margaret's School collect scrap metal and other materials for the war effort" British Columbia Archives.
This film may also be known as Queen Margaret School Salvage Drive, World War Two.
"Santa Passes Out is another of John Martin's delightful pictures of family life, a subject which he handles con amore. A series of unusually fine child studies makes this film outstanding, and the utterly spontaneous character of most of this material is all the more praiseworthy because every bit of it carries the story forward. Mr. Martin did not succumb to the sore temptation that besets the producer parent, to insert an irrelevant shot here and there because it is "so cute." The story itself is a gentle narration of the inevitable expose that awaits the fond parent when he impersonates Santa Claus, and the film as a whole is completely delightful. There is unusually good interior color photography throughout and a very clever, double exposed main title." Movie Makers, Dec. 1938, 597.
"A group of upper-middle class young men (dressed in shirts and ties, one in a striped blazer) sit on the grass. They are idle and bored and missing women. An intertitle states that `there is not a bird in sight'. A group of young women from the Amena Stich private school, led by their bespectacled female teacher, is walking out for exercise. The men see them and life looks better. They hide behind a hedge as the women pass by. The young women stray on a side path leaving their teacher to walk on alone. She eventually notices her young ladies are not behind her and goes to look for them. Meantime the men and women have met up and all sit around on the grass, the women being chatted up. Professor Stephen Chickwood is in the woods looking for insects. He meets the teacher and offers help to find her girls. They form a relationship and walk hand in hand. Eventually they come upon the young men and women who laugh and point at them. Amena shouts `Help'" (EAFA Database).
Total Pages: 12
Amateur Cinema